‘Not the right time’: B.C. business community reacts to new Canada immigration targets

Reaction successful B.C. is pouring successful connected the announcement that Canada volition trim the fig of new permanent residents to the state by 21 per cent by adjacent year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the inaugural connected Thursday, which is portion of a large bid of changes to migration targets that Trudeau says aims to frost colonisation growth.

Jasroop Gosal, Surrey Board of Trade’s interim spokesperson and argumentation and probe manager, said they are disappointed this alteration has happened.

“Last year, we, our concern community, we were fixed numbers of 500,000 implicit the adjacent mates of years and businesses, they prepared for that eventuality,” helium told Global News.

“And present to person authorities travel and alteration their migration argumentation 1 twelvemonth later, not adjacent 1 twelvemonth later, it is truly interfering with their quality to program for maturation and stability.”

Gosal said that immigrants travel to Canada and B.C. due to the fact that they spot determination is simply a request to capable jobs and enactment industries.

“Businesses person been telling america for years present that determination is simply a labour shortage,” helium said.

“There is simply a mismatch betwixt the skills disposable successful our existent labour marketplace and the skills that they request successful the jobs that are unfastened and that tin beryllium filled done immigration. And we judge that this is not the close time. It’s not the close mode to rotation retired these kinds of bonzer changes.”

Migrant rights groups person said the determination “scapegoats” immigrants.

“The government’s determination to chopped imperishable nonmigratory levels is simply a shameful capitulation to rising anti-immigrant sentiment successful a hopeless bid to regain governmental favour.  These changes volition unit migrants into impermanent oregon undocumented status, wherever they volition beryllium susceptible to adjacent greater exploitation and abuse,” Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network, said.

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Hussan said reducing the fig of imperishable residents would permission less pathways to residency for susceptible migrants.

Gosal said this alteration signals to the remainder of the satellite that Canada does not person the close policies successful place, which could scare disconnected overseas investors who privation to travel to B.C.

“We request to marque definite that we are reskilling and upskilling the workforce and ensuring that we are creating a strategy and a taxation situation and regulatory situation that volition let these manufacturers, these occupation creators, to enactment successful Canada, to enactment successful B.C., and specifically enactment successful Surrey,” helium added.

— with files from Uday Rana